


Street Lights

by SupremeSalt



Series: Stolen Youth [1]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Bullying, Childhood Friends, Childhood Sweethearts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2018-12-31 20:55:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12140958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SupremeSalt/pseuds/SupremeSalt
Summary: Two friends go off to play outside but before the street lights come on to signal that they must return home, something else might have been ignited within them.





	Street Lights

**Author's Note:**

> This was my submission for the r/zootopiaanthology vol 2. If you haven't read it already please go and read it and show the other talented authors move love.

The juvenile wolf rapped lightly on the faded green door, sending echoes throughout the house he stood before. He cocked his head after the numerous seconds of silence that followed and began pondering if he should either send another barrage of knocks or to just ring the doorbell.

The sound of deadbolts unlocking made his ear twitch and shoot up in excitement. The head of a whitetail doe peered around the slightly open door and soon after looked down towards the small wolf.

“Hi, Miss Herdson, can Janice come out and play?” The wolf asked with an excited face and an equally excited tail wagging about behind him. The doe gave the child a soft smile before replying.

“Well, I’m sure she’s finished with her homework, let me see if her father has any chores lined up for her before she can come out.” The doe left the door open for just a crack and began discussing the matter with her husband. Leaving the wolf standing outside in the nice spring afternoon rocking back and forth on his heels and looking around the yard.

The property was the average suburban one story home. It’s brick exterior had subtle chips and cracks laced along it that wouldn’t be noticed until you were closely looking, as the wolf was doing whilst awkwardly standing in front of the door. The yard had a small garden in which grew an assortment of flowers that was planted in what seemed to be every neighbor’s garden due to the fact that those were the only plants available at the nearest hardware store. The grass was well kept, but not without its flaws. A patch of weeds shot up here and there in the plot of dark green grass, the side walk leading up the house could have used some edgework in order to clear the weeds growing in between the cracks of the sidewalk, but all things considered the home looked to be a lovely place to call home.

The wolf’s ears twitched as they picked up the faint conversation of the two adults in the living room.

“I don’t like Janice going out and playing with that _wolf._ You know as well as I do, Stephany, that wolves are nothing but troublemakers and backstabbers!”

“He’s just a boy Harold! He’s a very sweet, young boy who happens to be one of Janice’s two friends. We shouldn’t be keeping her shut in from the rest of the world or she won’t know how to live without us!”

“I just don’t like the fact that-“

“Did you forget that Jordan also stood up for Janice when she was being bullied during school last week? How he stood up for her, a prey, against the rest of their class which, keep in mind, is primarily predator?”

Jordan lowered his head and held his arm with the other, he felt guilty for having caused an argument between two adults all because he wanted to play with his friend. The young wolf looked behind him and began contemplating just leaving and trying again another day, when suddenly he heard footsteps approaching from the other side of the door.

Mrs. Herdson opened the door with a faint smile before saying, “Janice will be down in a moment, thanks for waiting sweetie.”

Jordan got excited once again and beamed up towards her, “Ok, Miss Herdson. Thanks!”

Just then a small deer came up to the door having just barely slipped an arm into a flannel shirt destined to go over her t-shirt she already wore. She smiled widely as she saw her friend waiting and she rushed out the door and the two children began to run towards the street.

“Just be sure to be home when the street lamps turn on!” Ms. Herdson called towards her daughter.

Janice gave a quick wave and a quicker response, “Alright, Mom! See you when it’s dinner time!” And with that the two children ran around the corner laughing and poking at each other.

* * *

“So, what do you wanna do today?” Janice asked as she trailed behind her canid friend. Jordan paused as he hadn’t even thought of what they would do on this day.

Jordan turned around and tapped at his chin. “Well, we could go to the park and play on the playground there?” Janice nodded in agreement and slipped around him on the sidewalk and led the way.

Jordan was as innocent as they came, for his age at least. Being only 12 years old meant that he was still as naïve or innocent as the next kid, but also not oblivious of his surroundings or the things that happened in the city. In particular, his area of the Meadowlands. Jordan lived in a small two-bedroom apartment and lived there with his mother and four siblings, all of which were older than he was. Not having a father figure meant he looked to his older brothers as role models, but that never worked for the best as they frequently snuck out during the night to do things that was for “big boys” and wasn’t any of his “bee’s wax”. All he knew was that his older brothers were almost always up to no good and his expected him to be just like them. Besides that, all Jordan wanted to do was to draw or paint finger paintings about dreams he had during his sleep, his aspirations, his life but being from the family he was from, it was almost never meant to be.

In contrast to Jordan however, Janice grew up in the nicer part of the Meadowlands district. Being an only child living with two parents that are happily married (or so it seemed) was everything that Jordan could dream for. She spent her free time painting pictures as her parents insisted that she picks up a hobby that could “take her somewhere in the future”. She didn’t mind painting for fun or outside of art class, but it bothered her when her parents pushed her to paint with a serious attitude and often to paint things she didn’t want to paint. While she wanted to paint pictures of giant lizards destroying cities and fighting other giant monsters, her parents wanted her to pain nature shots and other boring things. They would sit her in front of the TV with her easel, canvas, paint, and brushes and put on re-runs of “The Wonders of Art, with Bobcat Frost” and have her follow along as he painted for his show. She longed for adventures, travel to distant lands (or as far as their imagination took them), and maybe get into some trouble here and there.

The two children were exactly what they both needed in life: An outlet for exciting adventures and a safe, quiet shelter for creative activities.

Jordan studied his friend ahead of him and thought to himself why he felt things he couldn’t explain. Whenever they accidentally touched he felt like 10,000 volts of electricity shot through his body. His chest squeezed and tightened around his heart whenever their eyes met and locked even for just a fraction of a second. He opened his mouth to try and explain himself to her, because she was always telling him how girls knew more than boys. So maybe she had all the answers he wanted.

Janice was having no better luck trying to silence her mind as she argued with herself about whether she should try and tell him that since the 4th grade she had a huge crush on him. One that wasn’t always a big secret but according to her best friend: “Boys are just so dumb, if you told him you liked him he still wouldn’t know.” Janice had hoped that she would be able to at least still be friends with Jordan, even if he didn’t like her back. She frowned as the idea of her losing one of her only friends, all because of a stupid crush. She shook the foul idea from her mind before it really got to her and just like that the two children stood at the park’s playground.

Janice blinked in amazement how she lost track of where they were and how quickly the two walked down the block while she was lost in thought. Jordan stood next to her and the two watched all the other children play and run around.

“So…. What did you wanna do? Did you want to play tag? Maybe hide-and-seek!” Jordan began getting more and more excited as he began listing off games they could play.

While Janice wasn’t opposed to playing those games, she understood that Jordan had an unfair advantage due to his heightened sense of smell, she slightly shook her head and stared at the ground as she thought of something they could both equally do together and still have fun.

A suddenly, a lightbulb switched on in her brain.

“Let’s play house.” She said, eyes gleaming with joy.

Jordan cocked his head slightly and his tail stopped wagging about.

“Like… what do you… mean?” Jordan knew exactly what she meant.

“Well, we can pretend like we’re married and we could pretend like we’re grownups. Doing grown up things.”

“What do grownups do though?”

Janice paused at this, despite living with both parents she didn’t really know what adults did during the day or what having a job was like.

“Let’s just make it up as we go?” She asked while shrugging.

“Yeah, ok… Yeah, let’s play house, it’ll be fun I bet.” Jordan said with a smile, but Janice didn’t miss how Jordan sounded like he was trying to convince himself that it _would_ be fun.

* * *

 “Ok, so since I’m the mom that means I do things like cook and clean. Cause that’s what my mom normally does.” Janice said whilst pretending to tie on an apron.

“Hey wait. If you’re a mom then shouldn’t that mean we’re supposed to have kids?” Jordan asked curiously.

“Yeah, so?”

“We don’t have any kids is the problem.”

The two stared at each other as the current problem dawned on them.

Janice awkwardly looked away, before looking back up. “Well, our kids are at school. How about that?”

Jordan nodded at the thought of that. “yeah ok, guess that makes sense.”

The two continued playing and such. Debating on what they think their parents are normally doing during the day. They had decided that Jordan was to own a company that sold popcorn to people whenever they wanted a bag of popcorn with the reasoning of “Well, popcorn is yummy…. So who wouldn’t buy it whenever they want?” and that Janice was the mother to their 7 children.

The number of children seemed a little high but their imagination of ideal wolf pups and fawns kept popping into their minds so they couldn’t just stop at one each.

As the two sat under the jungle gym eating their “dinner” another group of children approached.

“Well, well. If it isn’t the runt and his stupid little prey friend.” A rough sounding voice said.

The young wolf and the deer were startled at the sudden voice and intrusion of their make-believe land. Jordan turned around and found himself looking at Tyson Stripeson, a Bengal tiger just a year older than he was, and his rabble.

“Go away Tyson, we already have enough dealing with you at school.” Jordan growled, his smile he had on the moment before melting into a deep frown.

“Why don’t you make me, huh?” The adolescent tiger responded. “Or are you too scared to?”

Jordan stood up and looked up at the tiger. Despite being only a year older, Tyson had about a full head of height already on Jordan’s mediocre height.

“I said back off!” Jordan yelled before shoving Tyson, who barely moved back a half step.

Tyson growled and shoved Jordan down to the ground, causing Janice to yelp in fear. Jordan looked up at his friend, noticing how scared she really looked and how she was shaking in fear for her friend.

All the kids in the Meadowlands knew that Tyson was a bully and that the teachers wouldn’t want to intervene due to how his father was a member of the school board. Which meant Tyson had free reign to do whatever he wanted during school.

Jordan stood and brushed the woodchips off of his clothes. When two of Tyson’s friends grabbed him by the arms and held him a bit off the ground.

Jordan began kicking his feet wildly in every direction he could in an attempt to free himself, but to no avail. Tyson looked down at the trembling deer and grinned as he kicked dirt and woodchips onto her. She began crying immediately as dirt was kicked up into her eyes and at the same time, something in Jordan’s mind snapped.

Jordan instantly bit down onto one of the two paws that held him up and was dropped immediately from the combination of pain of the victim and shock of other teen after watching his friend’s hand get bit. Tyson whirled around to bring his attention to the commotion behind him and was met with a punch to his jaw.

Despite giving it all he could, Jordan’s punch didn’t do as much damage as he would have liked and in turn the three older teens began to beat Jordan down to the ground. Jordan instinctively curled up into a ball to protect his face from the oncoming assault of punches and kicks. Janice now having rubbed the rest of the dirt out of her eyes saw what was going on and grabbed as much dirt as she could in her small hooves and shoved it into Tyson’s face.

Her desired effect of getting Tyson to stop hitting Jordan was achieved, but now she faced the problem of becoming the target herself.

Jordan peeked up from his fetal position form and saw that Tyson was approaching Janice in a not-so-friendly manner and he shot up off the ground and onto his feet. Yelling and growling as he charged Tyson and thrust his shoulders into the unsuspecting tiger’s back, knocking them both down.

If Jordan wasn’t angry about Tyson ruining his day with Janice, he was more than what most would call “angry” now. Jordan began pummeling and slashing at the tiger’s face with fist and claws, while Janice crawled backwards to remove herself from the fray. Tyson’s two friends grabbed Jordan and threw him back onto the ground and as Jordan attempted to get back up, Tyson ended his efforts with a kick to the ribs.

Jordan found himself, once again, rolling himself into a ball while feeling the pain of every kick, every punch, and hearing the distant and now fading screams and cries from Janice in the background. He had all but given up hope when he heard a very loud, very startling, blair of a horn.

“Crap, it’s the cops! Let’s go man!” Yelled out one of Tyson’s friends and soon the pain of the beating stopped as the teens tried to escape.

While the arrival of police officers was a common reason why fights were broken up it almost never resulted in much other than sending a large group of on-lookers and participants alike scattering and running. Jordan was expecting to have to deal with Tyson and his goons again the next day of school, when a blur of gray shot past him and grabbed hold of the fleeing tiger.

A rabbit police officer had gotten hold of Tyson and began handcuffing him and telling him that he would be taken home and would have to explain all of this to his parents.

A small smile formed on Jordan’s busted, bleeding lips as he finally got to see Tyson get what was coming to him when a voice from behind him startled him.

“So, you’re the hero for our small deer friend are ya?” Jordan turned to find the voice and came face to face with a red fox officer who seaming just appeared out of nowhere as Jordan didn’t hear him approach him.

Jordan stood in a stunned silence and looked over to Janice who had a glimmer in her eyes. Soon after she turned to face the rabbit officer that approached her. Whether it was from crying or some other reason, Jordan didn’t know why her eyes shined the way they did, but he returned his attention back onto the red fox in front of him.

He nodded and the fox smiled, pulling a sticker out from his shirt pocket, placing it on Jordan’s wrinkled and dirty shirt. Jordan looked down and saw a bright yellow diamond with a big red “S” in the middle of it.

“Every hero has to have a symbol to stand behind, wouldn’t you agree? SuperWolf?” the fox grinned and motioned for Jordan to come closer, “You know, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say your friend over there has a crush on you. And maybe you have one on her too.”

The sudden hushed suggestion sent a wave of heat into Jordan’s face and caused his ears to blush a shade of red probably darker than the fox before him. The fox laughed before nudging the young wolf.

The officer tousled the fur on Jordan’s head with a smile before standing back up and walking away. Looking over his shoulder as he continued to walk, the fox called out, “If you ever need anything, look me up and I’ll be glad to help. Officer Wilde, by the way if you didn’t catch it earlier.”

Janice walked up to Jordan and for the first time they noticed how dark it was outside and how the street lamps were already turned on.

“OH! Our parents are gonna kill us!” they both yelled.

* * *

 Jordan stopped just short of Janice’s front steps and found interest in the ground to try when both of Janice’s parents met them at the front of the house. Both worried sick, understandably.

With a quick explanation from Janice as to why they were late, followed by a quick look at Jordan, both parents’ worry and anger turned into gratitude and joy.

Janice’s mother told Jordan to stay put while she runs inside to grab her first aid kit and get him cleaned up, while her father approached him and knelt before him.

Jordan flinched at the sudden move as he was always intimidated by the buck that normally towered over him, with antlers large and that had many points. His worry and nervousness melted away when Mr. Herdson placed his hoof onto his shoulders.

“You did a great thing here today Jordan. And you didn’t have to put yourself in harm’s way at all.”

“But…she’s my friend.” Jordan replied, “wouldn’t you do that for your friend?”

The buck chuckled and sighed.

“You really are your father’s son.”

The buck stood and began walking back to the house.

The sudden realization of what was just said dawned on Jordan.

“WAIT! You knew my dad?”

The buck turned a looked down at the juvenile wolf with a set of sad eyes, “That’s a story for another time. When you’re older.” And with that Mr. Herdson walked back into his home and his wife appeared soon after.

After a short while, Mrs. Herdson had gotten all the scratched and cuts on Jordan’s face cleaned up and put antibacterial cream on whatever bled. She gave Jordan a soft smile before walking back into her home, leaving the door open just a hair for Janice to follow.

Soon it was just the two children, standing in front of each other. Not a single sound came from either.

“I guess- “

“I’m sorry for- “ They both began at the same time.

“You go first.” Jordan said.

Janice smiled and said with a shaky voice, “I’m sorry for what happened today, Tyson’s just big jerk.”

“It’s nothing you have to apologize for.” Jordan responded sincerely.

“You know, the rabbit lady officer talked to me while you were talking to the fox officer.”

“What did she tell you?” Jordan asked, cocking his head.

“She told me I should be glad I have a boyfriend like you that’s also a hero.”

Jordan’s eyes became wide and he began to breathe quickly.

“B-b-but we. We aren’t- I’m not... you aren’t…” Jordan began stammered and soon just ended his attempted sentence with a whimper.

Janice giggled and threw her arms around Jordan.

“I know, but you’re still my hero.” She said with her face buried in his shoulder.

Jordan returned the hug and the two took a half step back from each other soon after.

“Well, I guess I should get going home huh?” Jordan suggested.

Janice nodded and the two began walking away. Suddenly Janice stopped and turned around.

“Hey! Jordan… wait…” She called as she hurried over to him.

One of Jordan’s ears rose as he tilted his head in curiosity.

“Yeah?” He simply asked. What followed next surprised them both.

Janice threw her arms around Jordan again and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

“I know you aren’t my boyfriend, well not yet at least, but you’re still my hero.”

The two kids looked into each other’s eyes for a moment, both blushing and hearts racing a million miles per hour. Janice turned and waved her good-bye as she closed the door behind her.

Jordan began walking off the front steps of her house before suddenly stopping. He turned and yelled, “WAIT! What do you mean by ‘not yet’!?”

**Author's Note:**

> The sequel is coming soon. Please feel free to leave reviews and such.


End file.
